Written version of Podcast 31

To live effectively is to live with adequate information.  Norbert Wiener

Covering: AMD protection: Coffee: The JUPITER study:

A new meta-analysis of nine previous studies totaling 88,974 participants reports that consuming fish and omega-3 fish oils seems to reduce the risk of age-related macular degeneration.

In a study of more than 125,000 Americans spanning 18 to 24 years finds no link between coffee consumption and increased risk of death. Even for those drinking six or more cups a day. In fact, heavy coffee drinking seemed to be associated with a decreased risk of death, especially from cardiovascular causes among women.

Both regular and decaffeinated coffee, were associated with a small decrease in risk of all-cause mortality.

Both men and women showed a trend toward decreasing risk of death as coffee consumption rose. The trend was statistically significant, though only among women, peaking at 26% reduced risk for those drinking four to five cups a day.

The JUPITER study is another example of a study that is a bad study but for different reasons. Crestor is a high potency statin. So it has all the bad side effects of statin drugs. It depletes the body of coenzyme Q10 causing muscle pain and weakness (14% of patents) also memory problems, liver toxicity and kidney problems. Those taking Crestor also had a significantly greater incidence of diabetes. The study was done in healthy people with normal LDL cholesterol levels.

If you read the print at the end of the study 11 of the 14

authors receive grants, consulting and lecture fees from a large number of pharmaceutical companies.

Reductions of 50% and 20% in relative risk for cardiac events and deaths seem impressive. Of the 8,901 men and women in the study who took Crestor: 83 or (0.9%) of them had a stroke, heart attack or cardiovascular death, compared with 157 or (1.8%) in a similarly sized group who took a placebo. This is not very impressive; it means that less than one in a hundred people received a benefit and most if not all received side effects.

In the Jupiter study all the participants were healthy with normal cholesterol. The study was to run 4 to 5 years but was terminated after just 1.9 years. If you want normal healthy people to take a drug with side effects, for the rest of their lives why terminate the study after 1.9 years unless something is starting to show that the drug is more harmful than the early results showed.

Half of all heart attacks and strokes occur in people with normal LDL cholesterol. So the researchers targeted another biomarker linked with increased risk of cardiovascular disease: high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (CRP).

Researchers from the University of California Berkeley published a clinical trial just a month before the Jupiter study showing that compared to a placebo, Vitamin C decreased CRP by 34% in people with levels higher than 2—the same results as Crestor. Vitamin D also reduces CRP. So instead of taking Crestor and making the drug companies rich take Vitamin C with each meal and vitamin D 2000 IU and stay healthy

That’s all for PODCAST #31. I hope you found it interesting and informative. The next PODCAST will be the week of Feb. 1

IF YOU WOULD LIKE YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED ON THE HEALTH AND HAPPINESS PODCAST OUR E-MAIL ADDRESS IS

health@lencolabs.com

For more information on this subject and other subjects go to www.lencolabs.com, thank you for listening to the health and happiness podcast with–Leonard Austin

Written Version of Episode 30

WELCOME TO THE 30th EDITION OF THE HEALTH AND HAPPINESS PODCAST

Covering: Taking blood pressure: Vitamin D: Preventing dementia

Stupidity is its own reward Dr. D. G. Carpenter

When taking blood pressure, certain guide lines should be followed: You should be sitting in a chair with your back supported, your feet on the floor and your arm at heart level.
You should sit quietly for five minutes, before taking a reading. If you do not follow these recommendations your readings can be 7 to 12 % higher than your real blood pressure. Some people suffer from “white coat syndrome” in the doctor’s office. This is a higher reading then if taken at home. If your pressure is always high in the doctor’s office, get a home BP monitor and check your pressure at home 3 times a day for a week. If you have constant high BP try life style changes before going on drugs.

New research reveals that high levels of vitamin D (Intake 2000 to 4000 IU a day.) Helps protect against Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s diseases and the flu. Blood levels of) vitamin D should be in the range 50 to 80 ng/mL.

California researchers followed more than 2,200 women aged 78 and older for four years, and found those with larger social networks were 26% less likely to develop dementia compared with women who had smaller networks. Daily social contact was also associated with a lower risk of dementia. Surprisingly the contact didn’t have to be face-to-face; Communicating via email and telephone also made a difference. Men also benefit from staying connected. Scientists at Johns Hopkins University who tracked 147 pairs of male twins for 28 years discovered that cognitive and social activity during midlife significantly reduced the risk of dementia later on. Among the activities tied to lower odds of dementia were visiting with family and friends, club activities (such as attending parties and playing card games), and home hobbies.

Genetics clearly plays a role in breast cancer, but recent research shows that up to 73% of cases may be caused by other factors. A Swedish study of more than 44,000 sets of twins found that genetic factors (such as family history or the presence of BRCA-1 and -2 gene mutations) accounted for only 27% of all breast cancer cases. While a 2003 study found that up to 40% of the women with BRCA-1 and -2 mutations may never get the disease. Researchers are turning up more evidence that environmental factors may have a significant influence on breast cancer risk.

That’s all for PODCAST #30. I hope you found it interesting and informative. The next PODCAST will be the week of Jan. 1

IF YOU WOULD LIKE YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED ON THE HEALTH AND HAPPINESS PODCAST OUR E-MAIL ADDRESS IS
health@lencolabs.com.

For more information on this subject and other subjects go to www.lencolabs.com, thank you for listening to the health and happiness podcast with–Leonard Austin

Your presence warms my heart.
I glory in the times we are together.
The time drags when we are apart.
Your warmth your beauty is forever.

The time I spend with you.
Is the best that I can do.
And if in some measure you feel as I.
It is like the sun shining in the sky.

L. Austin

But my bed is lonely; I would like you there.
It’s a place we have many things to share.
Our feelings for each other in the naked light.
Many things happen in the quiet of the night.

For you I will be the best I can be.
Because you bring out the best in me.
We are a couple you and me.
And the best is yet to be.

L. Austin

The old man in the mirror is not me
The young man peering out is me?
When my joints hurt I am the old man
When I dream of the future I am the young man
Who am I?

I can envision beauty and romance
And I am the young man
I can feel the pain in my joints
And I am the old man
Who am I?

L. Austin

But here among friends,
We emote and we feel
Through talk and through friendship,
Slowly we heal,

We go out from this place,
Just a little bit stronger,
And the beauty of each day,
Gets longer and longer.

L. Austin  4-15-04

There is no glory in loosing a leg.
And no justification to have to beg.
O God the fear the pain the hate.
Why am I here and what is my fate?

Am I to die in this stinking place?
For what? Not the betterment of the inhuman race.
I could have kids a wife a life.
Instead a bullet to end my life.

Why me, or my buddies or the enemy too.
What have I done to you and to you?
That I should die.
Thrown aside like a worn out shoe.

Lenny A.
7-23-04

A father, I will cut you down.
Your family will starve.
When I kill, families weep.
I bring death, destruction, mayhem.

Will you devote money to stop me?
Will you help the people I infect?
What will you do?

You know me.
You know where I live
You know how I move
You know my name.
AIDs

L. Austin
11-23-05